The first snow
December then 15. we went to a concert in Copenhagen and Pandora was for the first time, left in a kennel for the night.
We had our concerns but if she could be there over night we would have this option in the future. Not a solution we would use very often though.
Next morning at 8.30 I parked the car at the kennel. Longing to see Pandora. A whole night without her? Terrible.
A little snow was falling and I was thrilled that I had taken the day off to be with Pandora.
Pandora wasn’t particularly excited to see me; she was desperate to get OUT! Being in a cage for so long? Not nice for a wolfdog.
The caretaker said that she had seemed unsatisfied with being trapped. I was just glad she didn’t whine or cry when she saw me. Her need of freedom was so much more important to her.
As we drove home (only 3 km away) the snow started to fall, thick and beautiful.
It was so funny to see Pandora observe it for the first time. First she tried to catch the snowflakes, then she shook her head as snowflakes hit her ears, and then she didn’t understand the concept that if she used her paws to catch them on the ground, the flakes would melt.

Pandora in her very first snow

Two ours later the snow was laying thick all over. A beautiful landscape, and Pandora started to figure out what it was all about.

Pandora two in snow hours later

Later that day her best friend Bandit came and played with her in the snow. He stayed until next day and it was one tired wolfdog we had the following evening.

Pandora and Bandit playing in the snow

Xmas and new year – the fearless wolf
We had a quiet Christmas evening with just our parents. Pandora was surely wondering why a tree had to be in the living room. Great though, that her people had left nice, shining glass balls all over the tree to play with.
They were soon moved away.

Holidays were used on the fur-kid, talking long walks, playing in the snow and sleeping on the sofa.
The day before New Years Night, we were invited to dinner at some friends. Pandora was also invited and her best friend would be there, but also a dachshund. (Wiener dog).

She respected the little furry one. Her observation was probably that the dog was small and therefore should not be bullied. She actually showed signs of maturity.
We went by train to and from there. She coped with the one hour long train ride very well. On the way home she was so tired that she fell asleep on the seats.

Pandora sleeping in the train

New Years Night she managed to steal a big lump of our dinner, delicious beef tenderloin. Luckily we had enough beef so we could just laugh about it.
At 12 o’clock we went out to see the fireworks. Pandora came along by her own free will. She felt absolutely NO fear. She looked up, saw the crackling, colourful fire, and if she could have shrugged her shoulders, she would have. She didn’t care at all.
Clever, cool girl.

Exhibitions coming up
In January we will attend 3 exhibitions. She still goes as a puppy this month. After that, she’ll go as Junior and get new competitors.

Growing up
Suddenly one day I thought: It’s a long time ago since she tried to bite my hands or feet. She doesn’t do that so often anymore. And now it’s only when we play.

She also does not have ‘accidents’ indoor any more. If she has to go out she starts to breathe heavily and whimpers a little.

She met a little Irish wolfhound puppy before Christmas. She treated it so gentle and nice. Now she understands that she is bigger and older and must be careful.

Wolfish
We talk wolfish now. The more I know about the language between wolfs, the easier it is to communicate with Pandora.
Of course we shout: NO or DOWN when she jumps to the kitchen table, but if I’m really mad at her (if she runs to the street or eats another pair of shoes) all I need to do is to look her in the eyes. Staring. After a few seconds she’ll run off, with her tail between her legs..
I show my ‘forgiveness’ by smacking my lips and looking away. Immediately she’ll come back to me to check if she is let back in to the pack.
This is very effective, but I try not to use it too much. We are still a team and corporation is to prefer.

Speaking of this, I must recommend Shaun Ellis from England and his fascinating studies in wolfs.

Wolf-do’s
And the fur girl also does more and more wolfish things.
She always buries bones or other big lumps of food that she cannot eat. If she can’t go to the garden, she buries it in the sofa.

Holes are important. EVERY hole we see as we take our walks is examined. If it is small, she’ll make it bigger. Last week she almost caught a mouse in its hole. Funny to watch.

She opens doors. Now we have to lock the doors. She has no problem by opening it inwards either. If she wants to go out, she’ll go out.

Next
She must learn to be with minor children. She is afraid of children below 12 years or so. It could be that they look her in the eyes or it could be that she has hardly been with any before now.
Ring training continues. We still have a lot to learn.

Swimming continues. Mostly for the fun of it.
Soon we’ll be able to attend Agility or other kind of training. That’ll be good.

So far, we just have to get through the winter without being too bored.

Not much to report this week. Every thing has been going fine. No problems, no accidents, no trouble. Nice, right?

49 cm is her height now and using the cat flap is now completely out of the question.

Alone with daddy

I went away last Saturday so only my boyfriend was at home to cuddle Pandora and they did fine of course. Though it missed her like crazy I also thing they needed a little time together without me.

And thanks to my dear boyfriend I had pictures of the beautiful dog coming in via the iPhone during the day. You can see them here.

We also bought a cage to her, a cheep one to bring with us as we go on tours. She now has two weeks to get used to it before she has to be locked in it for 30 minutes or so. It might be very handy to have sometimes, but it’s interesting to see if she can cope with it at all.

She went into it last night without any fear and we have started to feed her inside it.

It is app. 1 x 0,6 x 0,8 metres with two doors and is collapsible into ‘nothing’ within 30 seconds.

By the way …

Pandora has her own Facebook profile, and she is now getting friend invitations form people I don’t even know. That is really funny.

You can become Pandoras Facebook friend if you search for Pandora Van Goverwelle

Loved and missed

These days at work I really miss her. I feel like I need a long holiday to have enough time to spend with her. It must be the same feelings as a mother/father have for their newborn baby.

Second week with Pandora alone at home wasn’t too successful either, but also not worse. She still hates it, but as she is picked up after two hours alone by my parents she isn’t alone for very long.
I’ll give it two months to normalize and there are indications that it is possible.

First: Now she can relax in the car as we go shopping and leave her for half an hour or even an hour. When we return, she’s laying on the back seat resting. That’s a good sign. It means that she is ok with being alone in the car even though (or because of?) people are passing by all the time.
Two: Her stomach seems to have become a lot better this last week, my parents noticed. Could indicate that her stress level is falling.
Three: She finds it easier and easier to be alone in another room than us. Or laying in the garden while we are indoor or vise versa.
We haven’t given up yet.

Tooth broke
Pandora had an accident the other day. As she was jumping out of the car, my parents dog tumbled over her by accident and Pandoras snout hit the door frame and one of her baby canine teeth broke. She hardly made a sound. Only the tinniest ‘eerv’ left her mouth. I’m so happy it was a milk tooth that broke. She has no problem chewing anything after this. But Wednesday we are going to the vet to get a rabies vaccination and the vet can look at the tooth then.

Barking
Pandora has begun to bark a lot. It’s not completely at dog bark, but she makes us smile because her bark is very deep for such a small dog.
She is always barking in protest.
If I tell her NO to something that she really wants, she barks in frustration. Like I am very unfair. It’s very funny but we also try to teach not to bark at us as she may look or sound frightening as she gets older.
This is also a quite funny situation as I have started to bark back, growl and show my teeth. And she respects that!
She actually got terrified the first time.
Doggy language is a good language to know.

Bathing
Yesterday she went into some really nasty stinking water at the lake. At home she had to have her feet washed. This doesn’t any longer cause a lot of sounds, only an urge to escape.

The girl is growing
Now 11 kg and 43 cm.
She is charming everybody. Even my mother in law.
“I just love that dog” one of my friends said the other day. And our neighbour likes her and always greet her with hugs and smiles and she likes him and greets him with smiles. She smiles with her ears (laying them flat down) and her black lipped mouth always looks like smiling. He seams to be a ‘real’ friend to her.

Learning
This week I’ll spend a lot of quality time with her. As she grows she needs to learn more stuff and I need to be more strict.
Barking on command is about to become possible. (But not needed – just for fun).
She needs to learn “lay”, “get down” and “here”. Especially coming by command is extremely hard as she is sniffing to everything on her way. I don’t know if she hears my but she sometimes look like I am the least interesting thing on her way.
Staying at our ground is also essential and will not be a problem to learn as long as no other dogs passes by.

Wednesday it’s rabies vaccination day, and that’s only to make it possible to travel to Sweden.
More about that next time.